I work in sales. Like anyone else who uses the phone to earn a living I would swear to you up and down that almost no one answers their phone anymore. But, it appears I’m wrong.
I just finished looking at a review of almost 20,000 calls that were made this spring to both the east and the west coasts and to my surprise (shock?) I found that people do in fact pick up the phone. In fact, based on calls between the hours of 8 am and 6 pm over 20% of those dials resulted in an answered phone.
Examining both the days of the week that the calls were made and the time of day, I was actually amused to discover that nothing there was a surprise.
Here, let me show you what I mean
Index of Best Days to Call to Make a Live Connection
- Monday 102
- Tuesday 101
- Wednesday 106
- Thursday 87
- Friday 103* (common sense says this HAS to be lower in the summer)
Index of Best Time of Day to Make a Live Connection
- 8-9 am 108
- 9-10 am 106
- 10-11 am 95
- 11-12 am 105
- 12-1PM 125
- 1-2 PM 84
- 2-3 PM 71
- 3-4 PM 92
- 4-5 PM 94
- 5-6 PM 121
Once upon a time, when I started my first real sales job armed with a phone book and a manager who didn’t recognize any activity outside of talking on the phone as remotely connected to what I was paid to do, I was taught that if you wanted to get someone on the phone
- Call before 9
- Call during lunch
- Call after 5
Nothing has changed!
So, if you’ve just about given up on reaching anyone live on the phone, take heart. 20,000 dials can’t be wrong and what they told me is “Go back to the basics.”